To this end, L'Oréal promotes diversity, equity and inclusion and sets rigorous ethical standards for its suppliers, covering the protection of human rights and non-discrimination. The Mutual Ethical Commitment Letter is essential to obtaining buy-in from the Group's suppliers(1). The letter commits suppliers to complying with strict human rights and environmental standards throughout their value chain, including within their own supply chain. Tier 1 suppliers are responsible for monitoring the corresponding measures put in place within their own value chain (see section 3.6).
In particular(1), L'Oréal expects its suppliers to:
These measures reflect L'Oréal's ambition to implement sustainable and responsible practices in its value chain.
To ensure that its Tier 1 suppliers comply with the applicable rules, L'Oréal has set up a hierarchy system for risks of failure to comply (described in section 3.6.5.2) and adapts the control method according to the level of risk, which may include third-party audits. Special attention is paid to conflict zones, and the risk hierarchy takes into account the type of activity of subsidiaries and the country, sector and nature of the suppliers' operations.
L'Oréal's Forest Policy helps drive its ambition to ensure responsible sourcing, aiming for sustainable and traceable sourcing. It is aimed at balancing the use of forest resources with respect for human rights and the environment (see section 4.5). With regard to forest areas, L'Oréal strives to create decent working conditions and respect the rights of local communities and indigenous peoples and land rights. The Group recognises the right to self-determination of indigenous peoples and ensures that it obtains their free, prior and informed consent for any activity likely to affect their lands and resources. For each field project involving indigenous peoples and/or local communities, a consultation is carried out at the start of the project to ensure that the action plan is fully aligned with the needs of those peoples and communities. The action plan then involves members of the community directly or indirectly as beneficiaries of the project, for example with training activities in good farming practices. Specific systems for reporting suspicious practices are also sometimes put in place to respond to specific issues relating to the context of the project and to feed into the reporting management mechanism more generally. In the palm oil and wood fibre sector, rigorous monitoring of reports is carried out via the palm and wood alert procedure, which is activated as soon as a potential violation of the policy is identified. In addition to the reports received by stakeholders, L'Oréal proactively identifies alerts, in particular by participating in the Action for Sustainable Derivatives' (ASD) Grievance Taskforce as regards the palm oil sector, which maintains regular dialogue with civil society organisations, including indigenous peoples, to facilitate the reporting of incidents.
By 2030, L’Oréal aims to help 100,000 people(2) from disadvantaged communities gain access to employment. This is the framework within which the Global Inclusive Sourcing programme is deployed.
Launched in 2010, the Global Inclusive Sourcing programme harnesses the Group's purchasing power to promote social inclusion. The programme is fully aligned with the Group’s Sustainable Sourcing policy, promoting diversity and inclusion within its supplier network. L’Oréal allocates a portion of its overall purchasing volume to suppliers who provide employment to people from socio-economically vulnerable communities and to suppliers recognised as diverse (for example, businesses which have traditionally faced challenges accessing large corporations). Consistent with the four pillars of the Group’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policy (see section 4.7.4.1), this programme supports employment and inclusion:
